Adventures in France

We left Budapest in the around 3pm in the afternoon on a quick 6 hour direct train to Zagreb, Croatia…or so we thought. After settling into our seats, we started talking to our neighbors, two British guys, Richard and Harry, who were also spending their summer Interrailing. Shortly into the journey, a conductor came around to check our tickets. He didn’t speak any english, but was passing around a sheet of paper with the same message written on it in 4 languages–part of the train tracks up ahead were closed due to work on the tracks, so we would have to get off at one station and switch to a bus for a portion of the journey before getting on another train. Everyone on the train was in the same boat, so we followed everyone when it was time to switch to a bus and enjoyed a scenic route through the Hungarian countryside. We had no idea how long we were supposed to be on the bus for and we almost got off at the wrong station, but after 2.5 hours finally arrived at the correct station–right in the middle of a torrential downpour. Huddling with the rest of travelers under cover at a teeny tiny station in the middle of nowhere in Hungary, we waited for our next train. But, the rain had flooded the tracks so it was a good hour before a train could get there.

Once we boarded and found a seat on the new train, we were hungry, tired, and finally on our way to Zagreb. We arrived Zagreb around 11pm, 3 hours later than expected. Luckily one of the other passengers in our train car was Croatian and very kindly showed us where we could find food and an ATM. Our hostel staff was also wonderful–they stayed open late so that we were able to check in when we arrived around 11:30pm. Needless to say, we had a very eventful start to our 36 hours in Croatia.

The next day, we got up early and caught a bus to take us to Plitvice Lake National Park. Plitvice is the largest national park in Croatia and is only a 2 hour drive from Zagreb. We had a blast exploring the park and seeing the gorgeous lakes and waterfalls. Exploring the national park was a change of pace from the other stops on our trip. Words and pictures do not do the beauty of Plitvice justice. But, here are a few images to give you an idea of how amazing it is.

After getting back from our day in the national park, we briefly visited Accordion Fest in downtown and enjoyed some traditional Croatian food for dinner.

The next day, we were leaving around noon to catch our next train to take us to Ljubljana, Slovenia. We got to the train station early and were waiting on the platform for our train to come. It showed up earlier than we expected but we got on and were putting our bags up when the train started moving and we realized that the train was not early, we were on the wrong train. Whoops. We got off that train at the next stop, just a few miles down the road. There were two couples who were also rushing to catch the same train and, luckily, we all were able to get taxis and make it to the original train station just in time for our train.

Our woes of the day did not end there. After arriving in Ljubljana and finding our hostel, we discovered that it was full of mold and spiders. So, we didn’t stay long and moved to a new hostel down the street that fortunately had available beds.

Once we got settled, we set off to make the most of our few hours in the city. We took the funicular to visit the castle, found delicious ice cream, and wandered around the city streets. While exploring the city, we ran into both of the couples we grabbed the taxis with that morning in Zagreb–what a small world! Our evening ended by listening to wonderful music outside a wine bar. It was the perfect way to end our not so perfect day :).